Seek and Destroy (42 page)

    He set a plastic bag down on the kitchen counter. The bag had a red seal across the top, and a bullet sealed inside. It had an inverted cone-shaped hole in the tip. Inside the tip, not bigger than the head of a pin, sat some sort of white powder.

    Charis picked up the bag and looked closer, her heart rate speeding up every passing second. It couldn't be. How would Surreal know about the Ricin poisoning? How would he know to have the hitter lace the bullet? Even if the shot didn't kill him, the Ricin would have.

    Oh no.
NoNoNo
! Surreal knew about the Ricin in his system.

    "It's Ricin," she stated, full of so much heavy dread it hurt to breathe. Had he been hit by any of them? She'd heard several shots. His face had little cuts and bruises all over it. What if the bullet grazed him? Would it be enough to kill him?

    How much longer did he have before his organs started to shut down? "Oh God, David. It's Ricin."

    "You fucking son-of-a-bitch!" David roared and jumped the man still tied to the chair. "Is this what you used to shoot at me? I'll make you eat the goddamn thing." He had the man beaten unconscious before her brothers pulled him off.

    Oh no. Oh Jesus no. She swallowed and stepped back, covering her mouth. A fear unlike she'd ever felt gripped its icy fingers around her heart. Panting in horror, she took another step back. "Seth, get all of the bullets into biohazard bags. Now! The gun, too. Get them out of here."

    "No problem."

    Her eyes swung to David. He stood a fair distance away from the counter, his breath coming in gasps. Oh no! She took a step toward him, panic rioting in her. "David? Are you all right?"

    "I'm fine." He brought his hand up to stop her from approaching him. "I didn't get hit. I just need to catch my breath. That half a lung comes in handy when you're beating a captive unconscious."

    "Would you please tell me why he reacted like that?" Logan asked, his gaze darting between Charis and David.

    "Snyder almost died from Ricin poisoning," Seth explained, gathering everything back up.

    "Any contact with Ricin,
any
contact, will kill him," she added, wanting to go to him, to bury her face in the hardness of his chest, just to feel his heart still beating soundly.

    Logan brought his finger up to his ear, listened. "Received." He looked over at his sister. "Back to work."

    Her heart slowed. "Is there another shooter?"

    "Nope. I just need to secure the perimeter. Ciao." He grabbed the rifle sitting by the front door and ran outside.

    This was all too much for her. Emotionally, she just couldn't take this. Fresh tears sprang to her eyes. Tears of fear, of anger, of horror. Not only did they need to hide from Surreal as they tracked him, they now had a new threat.

    Surreal had hired this man to kill David. How many others were out there? Did they all know about the Ricin?

    Seth grabbed the last bag. "I'll take care of the rest. Uh, Snyder? Don't go into the bedroom. I took the gun apart in there."

    With a curse, David closed his eyes and shook his head. His breathing seemed back to normal, although he still looked seven shades of white.

    Oh, David.

    "Time to move," Chris motioned for the door. "We've already scanned the area. No other shooters. Let's move before that changes."

    She turned to go back toward her office. "Did you get my-"

    "Yes." Chris pushed her toward the door.

    "What about my-"

    "
Yes
, sis. Now get a move on. Weber wants you at the safe house by sunup."

    But, her office. Her system. Surely they didn't have it all packed and ready for shipment in the short time David had been
questioning
that Ameer fellow. She twisted out of her brother's grasp and ran back to her office.

    And stopped. The only thing left were the two bookshelves lined with her romance novels. They even had her desk packed away.

    When did they do that? How did they do it without her seeing them do it? But then again she'd been fixed on David and his ability to persuade Ameer to talk.

    "Come on, Angel." He stopped by her side. Her shoulders sank as she allowed him to turn her and lead her toward the door.

    Fighting back the emotions, she sucked her lower lip in between her teeth and nodded.

    "
Meeeeeooooow
." A deep and very pissed off growl followed the meow. She turned and saw her brother Mitch with a pet carrier in his hand, Peepers tucked safely inside.

    "This cat is a pain in the ass," he commented. "Clawed the shit out of me as I tried to put him in this thing." Holding up his hand to show her, he then brought it up to his mouth to suck on one of the scratches.

    "Let's go, people. Logan and a few of our NASSD buddies have secured the perimeter, confirmed no other shooters present." Chris stepped outside and looked both ways as if crossing the street.

    "We'll be back. As soon as this is over." David took her by the small of her back and urged her out the door.

    They'd be back. Of course they would. Why wouldn't they?

    Oh, maybe because God only knew how many men out there had been hired by Surreal and would be shooting Ricin-laced bullets at them? And Surreal blew up buildings for her, all in the name of love? God only knew what he planned to do as his grand finale.

    A black van sat behind a giant SUV. As soon as they were all out of the house, the side door of the van opened and out poured countless NASSD agents. They stormed her house.

    "What-"

    "Garbage detail," David explained.

    "You two may want to get some sleep," Chris said after they were all tucked safely inside the SUV. "I already know you two haven't been doing much sleeping. Something tells me you won't get much sleep from here on out. Best catch your z's now."

    Sleep? How did he expect her to sleep after what just happened? She couldn't even catch her breath. She turned to look at David, just sure he'd have the same thought. Instead, he'd already closed his eyes, his head resting on the back of the seat.

    Or
was
he sleeping? Her hand shaking, her heart in her throat, she reached over to check for breath by placing a finger under his nose.

    "Charis? What are you doing?" he asked, his eyes still closed.

    "I just... Nothing." She placed her hands in her lap.

    "I'm fine," he reminded her, his voice raspy.

    No. He wasn't fine. And, until they found Surreal and stopped him, none of them were.

    

    

    The server's hard drive grinded to a sudden, and permanent, halt. Surreal watched the screen as the woman sitting at the desk hit the enter key over and over. As if that would make the hard drive suddenly come back from the dead.

    And it was most certainly
dead
. He'd made sure of that. Watching the woman on the monitor for several minutes, he sighed. Why didn't she call for a replacement, yet? She'd been sitting there for close to ten minutes now.

    Duh, bitch. It's dead.

    After having those assholes at Riverside screw up his original plan, and still not knowing how they knew about the bomb, he wasn't going to take any chances. He'd hacked into Image Techno-Gadgets-what the hell kind of name was that, anyway-systems two days ago to monitor all activity. It had been serendipity to find they already had audio on all the camera feeds. He wouldn't have to take a trip to Colorado to install his own cameras after all. And, with the feed, if they were on to him, he'd know. This time.

    It bugged the shit out of him not knowing how they figured it out at Riverside. His gaze rested on the picture. Charis smiled back at him. Of course! Pride filled his heart, the feeling causing his penis to twitch to life. "It was you?"

    Of course it was. Knowing his love knew his plan only heightened his arousal. She was so amazing. He'd never met anyone who stimulated him the way she did, both mentally and physically.

    He wondered if she already knew about the other buildings. Based on the communication traffic he'd been monitoring, the company had no idea. And if she had contacted them, he would have recognized her voice right away.

    How often did two lovers get a chance to work together? The excitement raced to his groin, hardening his cock.

    He sent another trace on all of her known IP addresses. He flicked a glance at the other monitor, noted how the dumb bitch sitting at the monitor still hadn't put two and two together. He shook his head. "What the hell is the matter with people? Fucking idiots."

    His trace came up empty. Again. He couldn't just sit around and wait for those idiots at Image Techno-Gadgets to call in for a new server. The fact he'd been tracked down to Riverside still needed investigation.

    Hacking back into Riverside's system, he confirmed all lines remained down. Good. Still, without their system up, he couldn't find where he'd made his mistake. He decided to pull up the phone call. Maybe he'd find something there.

    It was gone.

    "What the hell?" He went in search of the recorded call. After several minutes of frantic searching, he came up empty. Running a trace on the hits to the system right before the call disappeared, he spotted a foreign IP.

    "Hello," he sang. "Would that be one of your many proxies, Charis my dear?"

    Surreal added the IP address to his array. If that IP came in on any of his systems, he'd know. "Thank you."

    His attention back to the other monitor, he watched the woman stare at the screen. Holy Jesus, what was wrong with her? "Pick up the phone and call, already! It's about time."

    She picked up the phone. Instead of his phone ringing, it rang into another connection.

    
"It's Marie," she said into the phone.

    It must be fate. He felt his groin twitch. Marie was Charis' middle name. Hearing the woman say her name only solidified his choice.

    Image Techno-Gadgets was the perfect match. Based out of Aurora, Colorado, it settled in nicely with his plan.

    
"The server is not responding," Marie stated into the line.

    
"Are you sure you hit the right key?" The male voice, so condescending, asked.

    Asshole.

    Judging on Marie's body language, she shared his opinion.

    
"I think the hard drive failed."

    
"You aren't paid to think," the male voice responded.

    Surreal made note of the voice's extension. He'd make sure the man had something to do with the hardware failure. He'd also make sure the asshole paid for the way he talked to Marie.

    
"I'm sure of it, sir."

    
"Well," the male voice sighed, irritated. "I guess you'd better call their tech support, since you obviously can't figure it out."

    "Screw you," Surreal sounded off, saying exactly what he knew Marie wanted to say. After all, he knew everything about her. Well, everything about Charis. But once you knew one woman, you knew them all.

    Marie hung up the phone and picked up the receiver again. This time his phone rang.

    He cleared his throat before he picked up the receiver. "Mainframe Supply."

    

    

    Charis listened intently. Could she really be listening to the terrorist who'd been holding them at bay for the past week? She'd almost forgotten to run a trace on his phone when he talked to the woman on the other line.

    Almost.

    Once she'd snapped out of the initial shock of listening to him in real time, she jumped into action. As the conversation started, she traced the call.

    The equipment they had access to at the safe house beat the hell out of her system. It didn't take her long to have her system up and running at the safe house, with a few additions courtesy of NASSD. She really started to like that agency.

    David had disappeared into another room with a group of men who showed up about an hour ago. Her brother Chris had been part of the group, but her other brothers had since left. They weren't officially NASSD, they'd told her when she asked. Because of that, they didn't get invited to play in the reindeer games.

    Typical NASSD. But then again, ICE did the same thing. At least they should have let Logan stick around. After all, he was ICE. Seth was, too, but on leave while he completed the last of his medical training. Mitch, she understood why they wouldn't let him stay. He was a sheriff and had his own people to protect.

    And yet, none of them looked the least bit put out when NASSD thanked them for their time before asking them to leave. Somehow she knew she hadn't seen the last of her brothers on this op.

    
"How may I help you?"

    
"Hi. My name's Marie. I'm calling from Image Techno-Gadgets in Aurora, Colorado. I need to talk to someone about a server...uh...misbehaving."

    Charis shook her head in disbelief. She'd never heard another techie refer to a server as misbehaving. It was a machine, for crying out loud.

    
"Just what is the darn thing doing? Running with scissors?" Surreal teased, charm oozing from his tone.

    Oh please.

    
Marie laughed. "No. But it does seem to be having some trouble booting up. I'm wondering if you'd be able to help me?"

    
"Of course. I'll do what needs to be done."

    "David," she called. He didn't suddenly appear, which made her both relieved and troubled. Where'd he go? Ever since arriving at the safe house he'd barely said more than a few words to her. Every waking moment had been spent searching for Surreal. When they did find sleep, they were in separate rooms. And they were never alone. Having at least three other NASSD agents present at any given time really put a stopper on her reckless libido.